National Ledger - Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies: More Women Say They Were Raped in Iraq

Share This \| Related Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies: More Women Say They Were Raped in Iraq
By Tim Morgan Dec 20, 2007

Jamie Leigh Jones, a former employee of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), gave her testimony in front of a congressional committee and cemented the claim that she was raped and then imprisoned while working in Iraq. Jones case has now come to light and she gave her story earlier to ABC News.

Jamie Leigh Jones Testifies (Image: ABC)

No one has yet been charged with any crime and Jones has sued Halliburton and its former subsidiary, KBR Inc. KBR said it offered Jones support and assistance. Halliburton said it is improperly named in the suit.

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Jones told members of the US Congress that she wasn't the only woman that was mistreated horribly in Iraq, and Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) confirmed that saying that more women have come forward. One of those women has asked to be named. She was identified as Tracy Barker.

Jones earlier had told ABC News that not only was she raped, she was then locked up in a shipping crate and told that if she tried to report the assault she would never again work in Baghdad. "It felt like prison," Jones told the network for an investigation they were conducting for a 20/20 report. "I was upset; I was curled up in a ball on the bed; I just could not believe what had happened."

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Jones added that she knows of at least 11 other women who were raped by US contractors in Iraq. Barker submitted a written statement and claimed she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker while working in the Green Zone in Basra, Iraq, in 2005. That followed retaliation for reporting sexual harassment in 2004, she said.

Rep. Poe was unhappy that the US Justice Department didn't bother to send anyone to the hearings. "It is interesting to note that the Department of Justice has thousands of lawyers but not one from the barrage of lawyers is here to tell us what if anything they are doing. Their absence and silence speaks volumes about the hidden crimes in Iraq," Poe said.

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There are 180,000 civilian contractor employees in Iraq, including more than 21,000 Americans

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